When it rains it pours...

Here I sit for over a half hour listening to the goddamn Comcast muzak waiting for the human to answer. Did I mention how much I hate Comcast? And not only because they've a complete monopoly on DSL service in the Twin Cities.

This all started because I've been busy upgrading everyone's sites from Drupal 4.6 or 4.7 to Drupal 5.X. And we all get a fancy and shiny new look to go with it. As I'm doing one site full of events, I notice that even though MySQL is storing the correct timestamp, Drupal isn't displaying it correctly. A week ago, this kept me up all night trying to figure it out.

Then I learn the issue is really a bug in the way php 4.0.1 (which is what was on my server) dealt with the date() function. Soon I realize that I can't use any of the fancy new php 5 functions either because my server software is woefully out of date. Even online forums were nearly useless, because they're all discussing php 5 as well.

Alright -- so clearly the solution is to upgrade. I call the host and they begin the process last Friday. It all goes smoothly and without a hitch -- or so I think. I'm excited with my newly upgraded WHM interface and am playing with the new functions when I realize my gallery doesn't work anymore. Shit. It doesn't work on anyone else's sites either. Oops.

A quick google search tells me the solution is in the change of ownership permissions in the gallery data folder. Alright, I use my new shell interface to recursively chmod it to 777 from root. Yay -- problem solved.

All is now well in the world and I go on to work on the new goobertech look. :) I'm busy tweaking goober-code and playing about when a client calls to tell me she can't log in anymore. Uhg!

Then I discover that all the sites that haven't been converted to Drupal 5 yet have the same issue. As soon as you log in, any click to another page logs you out. Well double dammit. I soon learn that Drupal 4's handling of sessions isn't compatible with php 5.

So now I sit (and have been all weekend) feverishly recreating the 3 sites that need upgrading from scratch. It's super-extra fun because I can't log into them either to get the raw html. I have to recreate it from the visible content. One at a time. There is one small advantage in that it allows complete reformating of the content to the nifty way Drupal 5 thinks. In the long run, we'll all be much further ahead.

Now tonight -- I'm busy in the middle of rebuilding a new theme for another upgrade, and the damn internet shuts down. [insert plethora of swear words and pirate-talk]. Now what?!? Did I forget to pay Comcast? No. Their freakin' service just decides to turn off at random apparently. As stated earlier, I had to wait nearly 40 minutes just to have an idiot reset my modem from their end.

God... Damn...

Okay -- now it's one in the morning. I'm tired and irritated beyond belief. PBS is airing Nature in a moment (thanks to my new homemade TV antenna). I'm gonna crack a beer, watch Columbian jumping crocodiles with Sid and then go to bed.

PBS goofed on their TV listings so instead of jumping crocs on Nature like we anticipated, Sid and I had to settle for Blind Date. Oh well. Afterwards, the internet still didn't work worth a damn. Gave up -- went to bed.

On my way to work this morning, I notice a Comcast crane hoisting a lackey into the wires back in the alley. Maybe this is the problem? Hopefully things have returned to normalcy by the time I get home.